Easy and cheap ring compressor

[Gippslander]

For single ring pistons (and maybe this is an old idea), but, I just thought of this and it works a treat

Modify a cable tie, grind away a little on one side


Put the cable tie in position, make sure the ring is "on the peg"


Tighten up the cable tie, again, make sure the ring stays on the peg


With the piston at the bottom of stroke put the cylinder down on the studs and sit it square on the piston, and having the piston at bottom dead centre makes this easy


Give a tap on the top of the cylinder, and not much of a tap in needed, it should go down very easily, and presto, ring in and cable tie on its way being pushed to the bottom


Cable tie off the bottom of the piston, ready to be cut and pulled out, you will need to turn the crank a little to get the piston up a bit to get some room to get in to do the cut, but that will be obvious when you are at that point

[TM BILL]

Thats a clever and simple idea 

[firko]

I first saw this in an old Dirt Bike ;How-To' article back in the 70's and have done it that way ever since. It's a great poor boy/tight arse fix well deserving a show here on the forum .
Does anyone have any other similar quick fixes, home made gizmo's or other displays of lateral thinking in the repair and maintenance of old dirt bikes?

[Hoony]

I Like it.

reminds me of the old "Trail and Track" tips, except this is a good one.

[Iain Cameron]

clever ,nice quick 

[Montynut]

That is a great tip. I remember it from years ago and had forgotten all about it. Thanks for the reminder as I am in the middle of freshening up engines for next season . It even makes wading through all that avatar and humorous nudity tripe just bearable

[Tony T]

Nice one! 
I've never used a ring compressor (or oiled the top end of a 2 stroke on assembly), but that's a neat trick for those that do that I've never heard before.

I'd love to see some other ripper ideas as well. 

[holeshot buddy]

ha ha hoony thats funny remember all those suss
trail tips
like garden hose on your kickstart lever
and spare chain link on the cable
too bad if you didnt have pliers ha

[paul]

sit on a open drum  off raceing fuel ,that will compress your ring

[35elsinore]

Great tip. Thanks. One thing that I get frustrated with is getting dowls out. Have tried putting drill bite in and using pliers but still tend to wreck a few. Does anyone have a better way.
Cheers

[Mick D]

Great tip. Thanks. One thing that I get frustrated with is getting dowls out. Have tried putting drill bite in and using pliers but still tend to wreck a few. Does anyone have a better way.
Cheers

Hi Troy, If you want to remove your anti rotation pin for whatever reason? and yes there are reasons

In most cases you are better of to leave it there, but remove its protrusion. Just use the side of a "file" to file it down flush to the root diameter of the ring groove. Select the right sacrificial file. IE; a very thin file(a "warding file" as they are known), not much thicker than the ring groove width. Then grind both the flat faces off it to just less than the width of the ring groove. The ground off file face becomes what is known in the trade as "safe edges" and will not remove any of the piston material from the sides of the ring groove. A little care and the applied practice "rock filing", will achieve a perfect out-come every time.

[oldfart]

"One thing that I get frustrated with is getting dowls out"

Think he might be referring to case dowls

I have made up a plug that fits inside the dowl then use a flare tool ( clamp )....just tighten it up a bit and twist side ways and out they come.

[firko]

I've found it fairly easy to remove ring locating pins on some pistons, mostly Japanese by applying a little centralised heat and jiggling it out with a ground down set of needle nose pliers. I've only done it twice, both times on DT1 pistons and it worked fine.

I realise that 35 Elsinore is probably talking about something different but Mick brought the subject up so....